1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to the direction of leaks in structural members. More particularly, the invention is directed to a novel and improved leak detector apparatus which is especially useful in detecting fluidic leaks in a confined space defined by a member such as a pipe.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Structural bodies, such as pipes, conduits or the like, which carry or house fluid media must be free from defects which may cause leakage. Therefore it is quite obvious that such leakage makes the structural body inefficient and it will generally fail to perform its intended function, particularly for industrial applications.
Heretofore, known arrangements have been utilized to detect certain defects in pipe structures or the like, prior to the use of such pipe structure in a particular fluidic system. One known apparatus for detecting fluidic leaks included a stopper, an air induction plug, and a leak detector device connected to the plug. The leak detector had two separate external manually controlled valves. To detect such fluidic defects as pin holes, laminations or other individual tube defects the stopper is placed at one end of the tube while the opposite end of the tube has snugly inserted therein the air induction plug. A standard fluidic hose is operatively attached to the induction plug and serves to fluidically interconnect the interior space of the tube to be tested with the detecting device.
To satisfactorily perform the testing operation through the use of the aforenoted constructionl arrangement, one of the valves which is operatively associated with the detector device is appropriately manipulated so as to draw a vacuum on the tube. Once a vacuum has been achieved, as indicated by a suitable vacuum gauge, the other valve associated with the detector device is similarly manipulated so as to move to its closed position to thereby retain the vacuum in the tube. Should the vacuum gauge indicate that there is no variance in the vacuum drawn on the tube, such result indicates the existence of the tube free from leaks which otherwise would render such tube inefficient for the purposes intended. If, on the other hand, the gauge pressure fluctuates from the initial vacuum drawn on the tube then this would indicate the existence of defects which give rise to leakage.
Although this arrangement functioned somewhat satisfactorily to detect leaks, it nonetheless suffered from certain shortcomings. one such shortcoming is that it was relatively large and required two men to satisfactorily operate it. Further all fluidic pressure controls were manually operated thereby making it relatively difficult to manipulate these valves according to the proper sequence to perform the testing operation. This increased the time needed to perform each test and thus adversely affected the efficiency and productivity of the testing operation. I have invented a relatively automatic portable apparatus to test the fluidic integrity of such pipes by a single operation and in less time thereby improving the techniques of the prior art while avoiding their limitations.